Don’t call me “mademoiselle” – “Bonjour mademoiselle!” — is that a sexist insult? A classic pick-up line? Or just a friendly greeting for millions of French women every day? … A group of French feminists wants to get rid of the word “mademoiselle”, or “miss,” saying the term turns a female into an inferior being defined by her marital status. … Her petition — which has gained much media attention in France and is supported by some feminist groups — calls on authorities to force firms to scrap the term in all administrative or contractual documents. Mathilde aims to hand it over to the government before the summer. … In English-speaking countries, the terms “Miss” or “Mrs” for unmarried and married women have given way to the neutral “Ms”. In Germany, calling a young woman “Fraeulein” is almost considered an insult and the term “Frau” has become the rule.
An article that has brought forth an interesting question. Why do women have 2 salutations and men only have 1? I understand Ms. can be used for both married and unmarried woman, but they do have 2 terms. Is it because back then in the old ages, a woman’s status is dependent on who her husband is, hile a man’s status is regardless if he’s married or not? *shrug* Just an interesting question that I don’t have the answer to.
Random Crap:
What Grinds My Gears – Why is it when you right click on a picture in Firefox, ‘s’ = set as desktop background and ‘v’ = save image as? I mean why does the less common action of setting the picture as your wallpaper get the default ‘s’ and save image gets punted to use the ‘v’? I’m not a big fan of Internet Explorer, but even they got it right where ‘s’ = save picture as and ‘g’ = set as background. If I were to redo the hotlinks for Firefox when you right click an image, ‘s’ would definitely be save image as and probably ‘d’ or ‘b’ would be set as desktop background.
YouTube finally added volume controls to their flash video players. About time! I’ve always tried to find other links other than YouTube since I hated thir video player.
They say the etymology of heck is the euphemistic alteration of hell, but I was thinking where the heck does the ‘ck’ come from. Somehow, I was thinking and got to the point of WTF (what the f*ck) and WTH (what the heck/hell) and came to the conclusion that hell + f*ck = heck. They couldn’t do it the other way because f*ck + hell = fell, which was already taken. I also tried to figure out what other curse words end with ‘ck’, but couldn’t really come up with any.
Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006 (direct download) (from Tera) – a video animation by Paul Robertson. NOT WORK SAFE! A lot of violence and very culturally wrong animations. The animation seemed like a regular side scrolling game (like Metal Slug, in fact very similar to Metal Slug) with tons of cool machine animations and special power ups and evil octopus. However, the characters used are so wrong. I would assume all the monsters they were fighting were zombies, but these were zombie babies where they blew off their heads. Then there was naked female zombies (but they weren’t as bad). Then there were pregnant women who’s stomach exploded and zombie babies came out. Then there was the canon that fired out naked woman at the boss. The list just goes on.
Hungary workers get shock at bottom of rum barrel – Hungarian builders who drank their way to the bottom of a huge barrel of rum while renovating a house got a nasty surprise when a pickled corpse tumbled out of the empty barrel, a police magazine website reported.
Star salaries coming down in Hollywood? – Poor Jim Carrey. His movies have raked in nearly $2 billion at box offices, but now a leading entertainment magazine says the comedian’s asking price of $25 million a film has become “a bit of a gamble.” … However, his recent big-budget movies like “Fun with Dick and Jane” barely topped $100 million in domestic ticket sales, leaving his star tarnished, the magazine said. Carrey’s not the only one. Kidman is considered a risky bet after the box office failure of “Bewitched” and “The Stepford Wives” among other recent films. … But Tom Hanks’ $25 million was thought to be “worth every penny” because he remains “one of the most bankable brand names in the world.” Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal, at $5 million to $7 million a picture, and Rachel McAdams at $3 million to $4 million, were bargains. I’m just surprised that they were willing to hire such expensive actors on scripts that sucked. I’m still a big fan of Nicole Kidman (she’s so pretty), but sticking her in The Stepford Wives or Bewitched was trying to rescue a script that was dead in the first place. I bet sales would’ve been much lower if you they hadn’t hire a “big” star to play the main role. Acting wasn’t the problem here. All these actors can act (maybe with the exception of Will Farrell). Movie studios don’t hire hit stars on poor scripts for their acting abilities. They hire them so they can attract fans.
Moving puppy-bag sparks bomb alert in Italy – A moving bag apparently abandoned on a tram in Italy sparked panic among passengers who thought it was a bomb — but turned out to contain four puppies. What the heck? A bomb that moves? Sigh…
Family Kicked Out of Buffet Restaurant – Wendy Dershem may think twice before leaving that egg roll on her plate at her next Chinese buffet. The Des Moines woman, her boyfriend and her two children were kicked out of a restaurant last week after management accused her of leaving too much food on her plate. Haha. Reminds me of all the Asian buffets that have the extra line that says any piece of wasted food = $0.50 extra per piece on the bill.
When bugs fly / Auto geek hits highway for surreptitious runs in jet-powered VW (from /.) – Ron Patrick is approaching the age of 50, a time when many men begin thinking about minutiae like pensions and second homes and third cars. But Patrick is far more interested in telling you why it is that he has stuck a big jet engine in the back of a prosaic silver Volkswagen. Check out the video. Too bad it never shows the car at full speed.
Apparently CBS like ABC, decided to start streaming videos online: InnerTube. Only down side about CBS is that it requires RealPlayer. The scrollbar they implement is pretty awful too. I can’t seem to find any real content, just short clips and commercials. Maybe they’ll put up some real stuff soon.
Otaku From USA (from MS newsgroup) – Essentially, Otaku is Japanese for ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’, specifcally someone deeply versed/obsessed in the worlds of Anime (Japanese Animation) or Manga (Japanese Comic Books). Mostly, Otaku are seen as being so obsessed with their made-up worlds that they can’t live in the real one. Kind of like people I know stuck in World of Warcraft. The term even spawned an awesome TV show that I’ll blog about some point in the future called Densha Otoko. Here’s the direct link to the video.
Half-tonne man seeks life-saving surgery – – A Mexican man who at 550 kg is possibly the heaviest person in the world hopes to travel to Italy for a life-saving operation to shed weight. Do note that 550kg = 1212lbs. Do check out the photo.
Study: US mothers deserve $134,121 in salary (from Tekman) – A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, an amount similar to a top U.S. ad executive, a marketing director or a judge, according to a study released Wednesday. Well, the mom job is a 24hr job, right?
Highest Yielding Money Market / Savings Accounts – I’m still sticking with HSBC, but it seems there are newer higher paying savings account, such as Amboy Direct Premium Savings, which has no minimum and no fees.
The 50 Year History of Play-Doh (from /.) – In 1956 a new type of “modeling clay” for children was invented and began popping up in schools and stores everywhere. In 1965, U.S. Patent No. 3,167,440 was granted to Noah McVicker and Joseph McVicker for a “plastic modeling composition”, (which was originally intended to be a wallpaper cleaner) now called Play-Doh. Little did they know that they had created the substance of childhood memories as well as many a childhood meal, unfortunately. It’s interesting to see how play-doh came about. I didn’t really like the taste of play-doh that much. I was much more of a fan of paste.
Gone in 20 Minutes: using laptops to steal cars (from /.) – High-tech thieves are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to stealing automobiles equipped with keyless entry and ignition systems. While many computer-based security systems on automobiles require some type of key — mechanical or otherwise — to start the engine, so-called ‘keyless’ setups require only the presence of a key fob to start the engine. Wow… Makes me think twice before deciding to make my security all based on software.
The Best of the Worst (from /.) – The Internet spawned so many weird gizmos and bad business ideas that mocking dot-com duds became something of a sport in the post-bubble era. But some ideas still stand out for pure silliness. These are products and services that attracted lots of publicity — and, in some cases, millions of dollars in funding — before folding. Haha! Who could forget Flooz and CyberRebate and the CueCat (I think I still have a couple of those at home).
Thief disguised as guard robs Italy museum – A thief disguised as a security guard on Tuesday duped the unsuspecting staff of a top Italian art gallery into giving him more than 200,000 euros (137,000 pounds), local media reported.
India’s Gump: Boy, 4, Runs 40 Miles – “Cheered by thousands, a 4-year-old boy dubbed “India’s Forrest Gump” who was nearly sold by his impoverished mother ran 40 miles Tuesday to enter the country’s foremost record book. … Budhia Singh completed the distance in seven hours and two minutes which is an Indian record. This is perhaps a world record too. No other kid at his age has completed a distance of 65 kilometers (40 miles) at one go,” said his coach, Biranchi Das.
Couple, 33 and 104, Reportedly Marry – A 33-year-old man in northern Malaysia has married a 104-year-old woman, saying mutual respect and friendship had turned to love, a news report said Tuesday. It was Muhamad Noor Che Musa’s first marriage and his wife’s 21st, according to The Star newspaper which cited a report in the Malay-language Harian Metro tabloid. … The report did not say if any of Wook’s previous 20 husbands are still alive. Makes one wonder what happened to the 1st 20 marriages…
PM ‘eats babies’ sign flashed at commuters – A mocking announcement about Canada’s prime minister, “Stephen Harper Eats Babies,” was flashed on electronic advertising signs on Toronto area commuter trains for several days, and technicians were still scrambling on Tuesday to get the signs fixed. Why didn’t they just unplug the sign before attempting to fix it? Several days? Hahaha.
